


january 19th

by crystalcrow



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Domestic Fluff, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-20
Updated: 2020-01-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:15:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22329193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crystalcrow/pseuds/crystalcrow
Summary: “Yes or no?”“To kissing?”Andrew puts his hand down, grabbing what he stuck between the wall and the headrest and drops it on Neil’s chest. “To marrying me.”
Relationships: Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Comments: 22
Kudos: 546





	january 19th

**Author's Note:**

> HI! it’s not january 19th for me anymore, but timezones exist and it’s still january 19th SOMEWHERE, so here we go
> 
> enjoy!

They drive out to Palmetto on January 19th and neither of them mentions the date. They never mention it, or the nightmares that come with it for Neil, how he can only fall asleep with one hand clutching the material of Andrew’s shirt, fingers wrapped tightly around it but loose enough that Andrew can break free if he needs to.

Andrew finds an empty parks near the stadium and twists the key to turn off the Maserati, shaking off the memory of him holding Neil’s hand to his chest this morning, his heartbeat a reassurance that his words can’t be. 

Neil is slumped against the cool window in the passenger seat, mouth slightly open and eyes moving under his eyelids. The sun hits his hair, dyes it a bright red and his long lashes throw shadows on his cheeks. He’s wearing one of Andrew’s hoodies and he’s drowning in it and it makes him look younger and more innocent than he is. 

The phone in his pocket vibrates once against his thigh and Andrew pulls it out and looks away from Neil. _We are ready_ , it reads and Andrew doesn’t answer. 

“Neil,” Andrew says quietly and watches as Neil’s brows furrow for a moment, followed by his lips curling up at one corner. There’s warmth in Andrew’s chest when he looks at Neil, there has been for a while now, and he’d safe the feeling to analyze and look at later but he’s old enough and has been with Neil long enough to know and name it. “Neil.” 

Neil’s eyes snap open and he takes a deep breath, his shoulders relaxing from where they crept up to his ears when he recognizes his surroundings. He turns his head, a yawn splitting his face open and he mumbles, “staring.” 

“Shut up,” Andrew says and keeps staring. Neil looks better, he realizes, the dark bags under his eyes are barely visible anymore and his eyes are hooded but not wild. He exhales and opens his door. “Come on.” 

“We’re already here?” Neil asks but steps, hissing at the chilly breeze that brushes through his hair and whips at the hoodie. 

Instead of answering Neil (that question doesn’t need an answer, neither was it necessary to ask but Andrew doesn’t say this), he grabs their bags from the backseat, carrying them both, and makes his way to the entrance. 

It takes a few seconds but he eventually hears Neil’s footsteps as he follows. They let themselves in, the keys a graduation gift Wymack had given both of them. Andrew had thought he was getting sentimental with age, whereas Neil had looked like he was going to tear up. 

Being back here, seeing the lounge and pictures of himself on the wall, framed and not wrinkled, dirtied and ripped apart, is strange but not unpleasant. It smells like cheap deodorant, sweat and rubber. It feels, somehow, like seeing someone you haven’t seen for a long time. Not like coming home but there’s not a big difference. 

Neil snorts behind him and when Andrew turns, he is looking at one of the pictures. It’s of them, at the airport. They’re both wearing their matching coats from Nicky and their eyes are locked. 

Andrew remembers (he remembers, he remembers, _he remembers_ ) Neil asking him if he had been joking about his fear of heights. He remembers Neil giving him Nathan’s and his old name. It’s not something he necessarily wants to remember but not something he wants to forget either.

“Nicky said it was blatant favoritism,” Neil says and lightly taps a finger against the glass protecting the picture. “Because you’d barely said ten words to him but were talking to me. And that he’d been jealous if he wouldn’t have been so afraid of dying.” 

It’s nothing Andrew has interest in talking about. He thinks he hears mumbling coming from down the hall but ignores it.

“Was it?” Neil asks and Andrew’s gaze slips down when the corner of Neil’s mouth quirks up. “Blatant favoritism?” 

“No. I hate you,” Andrew says and steps closer. “Yes or no?” 

“Yes,” Neil says and leans down to meet Andrew in the middle for a hard kiss that gets softer the longer their lips touch. 

Softness isn’t something either of them is know but if it comes in forms like this one, Andrew doesn’t mind familiarizing himself with it. 

He steps back and looks at Neil’s lips, slightly red and wet, before turning around and focusing on the closed door of the locker room. “Come on.” 

Neil’s footsteps echo off the walls as he speed walks to reach Andrew’s side and if Andrew trips him when Neil turns the handle to the locker room, no one has to know about it. 

Hushed conversations stop when Neil opens the door and Andrew nearly runs into his back when he stops walking. He gives Neil a shove into all of the orange and steps out of the way as Matt jumps up from where he was tying his shoes. 

“Neil!” he cries and lifts him into the air. And then he twirls him around once like a life sized teddy bear. “How are you, son?” 

Andrew puts his and Neil’s bag down, feeling blue eyes burning into the back of his head and opens his old locker. 

“I— what?” Neil sounds confused but when Andrew throws a look over his shoulder, there’s happiness practically pouring out of his pores. 

“It’s so good to see you,” Nicky says somewhere on Andrew’s right and Andrew sighs quietly before turning his head and meeting his brothers knowing stare. “You never call me back!” 

Allison walks out of the shower room, dressed in her old jersey and arms crossed in front of her chest. “Can you blame the guy?” 

The door opens and Andrew looks away from Aaron and begins to open his bag. “What’s taking you so long?” There’s a pause, clearly from Kevin noticing Neil’s arrival. “You’re here, finally. Where’s Andrew?” 

Andrew tunes the others out, an old habit that he slips into without problem. Their talking and Kevin bitching is background noise to him that he can easily ignore. He acknowledges Renee with a nod when she stops next to him for a second and zones back in when he hears his own name. 

“.. Andrew and Renee’s idea, actually,” Wilds says and then there’s a second of silence in which she either has her hand on Neil’s shoulder or is ruffling his hair. “The old jersey’s was Kevin’s idea, though.” 

“Getting sentimental, aren’t we?” 

“Fuck off, Reynolds.” 

“I don’t..” Neil says. “I don’t have mine.” 

With a quiet sigh, Andrew grabs the piece of fabric that has been hurting his eyes since he opened his bag and throws it in Neil’s general direction. Then he does the same with the pants and the rest of Neil’s gear and his annoying bandana.

There is more silence and then Matt clears his throat. “That.. was weirdly cute.” 

Andrew considers throwing his locker at the backliner for a second but then Neil joins him in front of his locker as the others speak, warmth in his eyes (and they’re blue, blue, _blue_ ) and Andrew decides that it’s too much effort. 

***

It is, in true Fox fashion, a disaster. 

It starts with Nicky pulling out his phone every two seconds to answer Erik, Kevin bitching at him from all the way down the court and ends with Andrew sending one of Kevin’s weak attempts at scoring a goal flying directly at his crotch. Kevin jumps out of the way at the last second and Aaron lifts one of his eyebrows. 

Neil’s grin is bright enough to blind Andrew and he finds that he doesn’t mind. 

Wymack, joins sometime between Kevin bitching at Allison and Neil giving Aaron the finger, and surprisingly brings Jeremy Knox with him. 

It takes Kevin spectacular ten seconds to stumble over his words and then his own feet and he manages to fall on his face. 

Neil looks back at Andrew, a twinkle in his eyes, and Andrew simply looks back. 

***

It’s late and dark outside when they reach their home. Andrew feels exhausted but something close to nervous energy is buzzing around in his stomach and he tells King it’s her fault when she keeps meowing at him as he waits for Neil to come out of the bathroom. 

He leans back against the headboard, a book in his hand, his reading glasses slipping down his nose and Sir purring on his lap when Neil emerges, stretching and yawning wide enough that his jaw cracks. 

His eyes are half closed when he sits down, the mattress tils a little under his weight but Andrew finds that he doesn’t mind. 

“Yes or no?” Neil asks and puts his head on Andrew’s shoulder when he gets Andrew’s quiet consent. “Today was fun. It was good seeing everyone and playing with them again.” 

Andrew closes his book, a finger between the pages to show that he was listening. 

“I think that.. I wouldn’t mind spending next year like this,” Neil says and then nearly rams his thick head into Andrew’s chin when he looks up at him. “Or like this.” He runs a hand through Sir’s fur and she purrs disgustingly loud. “Thank you.” 

“I’m not your answer,” Andrew says quietly.

Neil shrugs. “I know, and I’m not yours either. That doesn’t mean I can’t be grateful for what you do.” 

Andrew hums and puts the book on the nightstand, taking off his glasses and placing them on top of it. When he turns back around, Neil has scooted closer. “We could spend next year with them too.” 

“What?” Neil asks and then tilts his head. “Playing Exy? You hate Exy.” 

“I hate you,” Andrew says lightly and ignores Neil’s huff of amusement, minty breath hitting his face. “You don’t think about anything else in that one track mind of yours.” 

“I think about you,” Neil says, grinning. “And your biceps. You’ve got arms for days, did you know that?” 

Andrew hates Neil. This was a terrible idea and he’s definitely going to murder him and dump his body where no one can find it. 

“Kiss me.” 

“Kiss your racquet instead,” Andrew says but still leans in for a short kiss. It leaves his lips tingling, his heart racing. 

“I like kissing you more.” 

“This sounds like you actually kissed your racquet.” 

“Who says I haven’t?” 

Andrew covers Neil’s face with his hand and shoves him. He falls onto his bag and grins up at Andrew, his auburn hair a mess and eyes bright. “You disgust me.” 

“Sure,” Neil nods. “Hey, how else would we spend next year if we’re not playing Exy?” 

If it weren’t for the fact that Andrew’s heart is trying to jump out of his chest, Andrew would say something about how the only thing can think about doing with his friends is playing Exy.

“Depends,” Andrew says and swallows as his throat goes dry. Sir puts her claws in his thigh as she leaves, her head held high but Andrew doesn’t care; he puts his elbow on top of the headrest and Neil’s eyes are drawn to his biceps. Andrew does not feel smug, he doesn’t. “Yes or no?”

“To kissing?”

Andrew puts his hand down, grabbing what he stuck between the wall and the headrest and drops it on Neil’s chest. “To marrying me.” 

Neil blinks at the box, then at Andrew, at the box again. He sits up quickly and looks at it with big eyes.

“It is not because of the date,” Andrew says and adds, “not entirely.” Because he’s not a liar and if he ever decides to become one, he won’t start with lying to Neil, of all people. “I’ve been thinking about it for a few weeks. There are certain benefits with it; not having to fight nurses when you end up in the hospital again, and we both know you will. Stopping those ridiculous rumors.” 

“You don’t care about rumors,” Neil says. 

“No,” Andrew agrees. “But you do.” 

Neil opens the box after another second and his eyes zero in on the ring. It’s simple and silver, a thin band without any sparkling diamonds or anything extravagant. 

“You can say no,” Andrew says and he is almost convinced that Neil can hear his heart wildly beating in his chest. “It won’t change anything, we’ll go on like now. I’ll bring take the ring and bring it back or maybe—”

“No.” 

Andrew blinks, breath frozen somewhere in his lungs. 

“I’m not saying no to this, to marrying you,” Neil says a second later and Andrew keeps breathing. When Neil looks up, the corner of his mouth is curled up and his icy eyes are warm and hooded. “I’m saying no to getting rid of the ring. How come no one spilled anything? Our friends are shit at keeping secrets.” 

“My dear baby brother unexpectedly helped me choose it in Germany.” Aaron does talk to the foxes, but he doesn’t spill others secrets. Not always. 

“That was six months ago.” 

“So it was.” 

Neil hums through a smile and takes the ring out of the box, looking surprised when it fits his left ring finger perfectly. “I’m not even going to ask when you got my ring size.” 

Andrew doesn’t say anything, gaze stuck on Neil’s left hand and his mind completely quiet and content until he opens his mouth again. 

“Andrew Josten.” Neil snorts and Andrew can feel his eyebrow twitch. “Neil Minyard.” Neil turns to him. 

Andrew couldn’t care less about which last name they end up using. “You haven’t said yes yet.” 

“Oh.” There’s another smile parting Neil’s lips and he leans forward, so close to Andrew that his face starts to blur. “Of course I’ll marry you. Yes, Andrew.” 

Before Andrew can open his mouth, Neil leans back, smile turning into a small smirk. “Josten-Minyard or Minyard-Josten?”

**Author's Note:**

> pl e ass do leave nghgng comment . 
> 
> find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/seijohsmanager)
> 
> minyard-josten or josten-minyard?


End file.
